June 26, 2009

FIRE ACTIVITY PICKING UP AS WEATHER WARMS

Burning Suspended July 1 

Firefighters from the Douglas Forest Protective Association spent Thursday afternoon and evening putting one fire out and mopping up another from the night before. The recent fire activity goes hand in hand with the rise in temperatures, and the summer is only beginning. 

DFPA, Tiller Rural Fire Department and the Tiller Ranger District of the Umpqua National Forest responded to a natural cover fire across from the Drew Store just past milepost 31 of the Tiller Trail Highway around 3:00 p.m. The three fire agencies worked together with six engines and two hand crews to stop the fire’s spread at four acres. The fire, which is under investigation, burned grass, brush and trees in the Drew Valley, about 20 miles east of Canyonville. The fire was reported by a passerby and confirmed through the use of one of DFPA’s fire detection cameras.

A separate fire detection camera spotted a fire late Wednesday afternoon in a remote area northeast of Elkton. DFPA fire crews located the fire at about 8:00 p.m. and proceeded to put it out after it had burned one quarter of an acre. DFPA returned to the scene Thursday to finish mopping up the fire, which resulted from a holdover lightning strike from thunderstorm activity earlier this month.

DFPA has suppressed 13 fires since May 1^st that have burned about eight acres.